Hitching a lift: the cool life cycle of the bee-riding black oil beetle

When rangers at Kinver Edge in Staffordshire discovered rare black oil beetles on a stretch of restored heathland, they knew there was only one way they could have arrived there: by hitching a ride on a solitary bee. “Their life cycle is really cool, probably the most interesting of any British insect,” said Ewan Chapman, the countryside manager for Kinver Edge, as he sets out into the heathland on a warm March morning to try to spot some. These shiny black beetles, native to the UK, are increasingly vulnerable and completely reliant on a healthy bee population in order to

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